WATCHLIST: Mahanagar (The Big City)

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

While Filmfest Aachen 2025 is approaching fast, our regular cinema series WATCHLIST keeps celebrating the films that first sparked our love for cinema! Now on first MONDAY of the month. 

🗓️ September 1st
🕗 8 PM
🎤 Original version with english subs 
🎟️ @eden_palast_aachen

Satyajit Ray’s groundbreaking classic that redefined Indian cinema, portraying a housewife’s quiet defiance and one of the earliest feminist voices on the Indian screen

After depicting rural Bengal in the Apu Trilogy, Satyajit Ray turned to modern Kolkata with Mahanagar (The Big City). The film follows a lower-middle-class family whose life shifts when Arati, the young wife, starts working to support them. Like much of Ray’s work, it examines individuals navigating social change, in this case, 1950s Kolkata, where more middle-class women joined the workforce. Ray highlights the tension between fading feudal values and emerging capitalism, portraying Arati’s pursuit of dignity and independence.